FLORIDA: The Red Tide

At St. Petersburg, the tarpon boats lay idle
at their piers. Down the coast at Sarasota, merchants glumly watched
the summer vacationists pack their bags and leave. The beach hot-dog
stands were deserted at Indian Rocks and Pass-a-Grille; many beach
cottages were empty. Under the hot summer sun, the stench of rotting
fish seeped into houses, clung to clothes. The strange phenomenon which
Floridians called the "Red Tide" had come back to the Gulf Coast.

The Red Tide had appeared off the west coast of Florida last January
(TIME, Feb. 10). Fishermen first noticed long, wavering streaks of
reddish-amber smudging...